About

I'm a visual artist obsessed with optimism. Originally from California, now living in New York. This is a space where I think through and share notes on art, art worlds, transparency, positive psychology, and my process.

–Hanging out in Brougham Hall, the fortified castle that dates back 1600 years ago to the Roman days. It’s currently undergoing private reconstruction under the leadership of Mr Christopher Terry, a delightful Englishman, world traveller and architect. Mr Terry took me to see the Lake District, past the beautiful lakes Ullswater and Brotherswater, and over the Hardknotts Pass, where we could see 20 miles to the Irish Sea.

–Meeting a few other artists involved with FRED, such as Sally Barker, who has made sculptures of poo and set them out along a beautiful creek and waterfall outside of Sticklebarn(?) Tavern in Great Langdale, Kate Gilman Brundrett, who developed the Ministry of Creative Parking for the parking-starved town of Penrith, and Tony Charles, who makes his own pigments out of steel rust and created a marvelous floor pattern in the art college, which is housed in a former steel mill. And I also enjoyed painting rocks to assist Kate Raggett with her piece, which involved hauling 5,000 stones up the side of a hill behind a mining museum into sheep grazing territory, and arranging it into a design that can be seen from miles away, such as at the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

–Staying at the Keeper’s Cottage B&B, which was actually the gamekeeper’s cottage during Lord Brougham’s time. Pam and James Wright maintain it now as a beautiful, homey cottage, and the little touches in the decor are adorable. The view outside my window is picture perfect: a farm with sheep and what looks to my city-slicker eyes as Shetland ponies, walls of slate cutting up the green fields. The breakfasts of Cumberland sausage and bacon (what we Yanks call ham) and eggs and toast with homemade marmelade are fantastic…